Understanding the demographic tiles

Using the geographic city jurisdictions in Cities of Opportunity 6, the city tiles present a framework for thinking about each city’s demographic opportunities and challenges. We divided city populations into six age groups, which are modified from standard definitions to recognize the increasing trend of extended education, and therefore, delayed participation in the workforce for the young; and increased retirement ages in many countries, along with longer and healthier working years.

Population density, dependency and land area are all included in the comparison as well as a projection of demographic directions in our 30 cities to 2025. See Vital Statistics on this website or page 9 of the study for more detail on the methodology (“How to read the tiles”). See page 16 of the study for more detail on how we project and compare cities to 2025 (“Establishing a sense of demographic direction”).

*Shanghai and Beijing: Population includes the entire permanent population provided by the city statistics bureau, embracing both permanent households and permanent migrants.